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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)– A 4-year-old boy is in the fight of his young life after he was shot in the chest during a botched robbery in the Bronx.

Police said the gunman, identified as 17-year-old Mauricio Acosta, pulled the trigger while trying to steal an old coat that belonged to the boy’s father.

The father was bringing his son, 4-year-old Cencia Balthazzar, back to the women’s shelter where the toddler lives with his mother on Grand Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when police said Acosta and two other teenagers tried to rob them.

Sources told 1010 WINS’ Carol D’Auria the father and Acosta apparently got into a struggle and the gun went off shooting the young boy in the chest.

“I seen the baby. The legs were spread apart and the mom was trying to hold her or him, whatever it was. The baby wasn’t moving at all,” witness Neftali Negron told CBS 2’s Kristin Thorne.

CBS 2’s Pablo Guzman reports two young men rushed the boy to get medical attention. The child was transferred from St. Barnabas Hospital to Columbia-Presbyterian. Investigators say he has lost consciousness three times.

Police said the father wrestled a gun away from one of the alleged muggers and ran after one of the suspects, shooting the teen in the back of the head.